i’m looking for a cd with lots of slow airs by a solo artist preferably in low whistle any thoughts?
My friend gave me a cd by Cormach Breatnach and Martin Dunlea called “Music for whistle and Guitar” (or something like this). This might be what you’re looking for?
I for sure like it!
Walton’s has an “Irelands Best” series of books with CD’s. The 101 Best Slow Airs is pretty good. All are done solo on low whistle, fiddle, pipes or harp. Most are low whistle and fiddle. I think Mel Bay is the US distributer.
Edit: Oops, no 101 in the title (thats the Session Tunes books). There are 110 actually.
Here’s a good choice, although it’s flute slow airs, not low whistle. But if it can be played on the flute, it can be played on the whistle.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/4133/index.html?200520
I have both of these and they are both good.
I’ll second blackhawk’s recommendation - he put me onto them. Two of my favorites (and one of the leading reasons I’m currently struggling to develop a flute embouchure).
The “Ireland’s Best” series is good, too - but the CDs are focussed on giving you a 1x repeat of each tune, not listening pleasure. To really “get” an air, it helps to hear it played with repeats and variations.
I’ve enjoyed this CD, its all slow airs.
http://cdbaby.com/cd/bmlother
IF you want more new agey stuff you should check out Talbert St. Claire.
Folks, follow the link and have a listen. Unbelievably beautiful!
perrins, you have made someone’s life a little better today. Thank you.
EDIT: I was so taken with the samples from the web site above that I went ahead and ordered the CD. I haven’t felt this good about getting a CD in a long time. Not only is it beautiful, but the company selling it made the transaction an interesting experience, in a good way, and it arrived in just two days. It was only $15 and change total to boot. I didn’t think anything was going to get Christy Moore out of my CD player. 
Just put this CD in and turn up the volume and the world just slips away. I highly recommend this for anyone.
Once again, thanks perrins57. It was just what I needed at just the right time.
Mike
Its always nice to be thanked, but I just stumbled on the CD by accident, the Lothers are the ones we should really thank.
I have the “Ireland’s Best Slow Airs” book and CD. My one misgiving is that all of the performances on the CD are highly ornamented in ITM style. Nothing wrong with that for listening enjoyment, but, if you’re using the CD as an adjunct to the book for learning the tunes, it’s not all that useful. Many times, I looked at the sheet music in the book, played the track on the CD, and six seconds, five cuts, three crans, two rolls, and a partridge in a pear tree later, I had absolutely no idea where in the piece they were. Like I said, good for listening, not good for learning.
I agree with the observation about the discrepancies in timing between the print and the cd. I still found the set useful- getting a sense of how a tune went by listening (and deciding if I wanted to learn it) , then going to the sheet music and working it out. Sometimes the dotted notes confused me so much, I needed the cd to see what was up. Also, print music alone suggests the tunes have a steady rhythm, which they don’t. The playing on the cd is very loose compared to the print. I still found the print helped me work out the basic melody. (FWIW)
Tony
Though not all strictly all slow airs or whistle, these two cds have some beautiful Low whistle on them, and that’s why I have them in my collection:
Eoin Duignan’s “Coumineol” is great. The first cut is worth the price of admission! It is similar to Cormach Breatnachs “Music for Whistle and Guitar”, also excellent, just as Katta said. Eoin’s is intermixed with some amazing Illeann piping too.
Another wonderful piper, Paddy Keenan, plays a mean Low whistle on The Long Grazing Acre, and although not the majority is whistle, what is on there is worth having also. The 2nd tune, Eimhins/, and the 9th, Mary Bravender, are two of my all time favorites.
These two cds, although not all traditional, have some haunting melodies that are hard to forget, and hard to not push the repeat button on. But, if you don’t care for the piping, they might not be what you really want.
I also recommend Eoghan MacAogain’s two slow air cds for flute-(D and Eb flutes) as mentioned above by Blackhawk and DCrom. The Le Fonn album is my favorite of the two.
It’s hard to find good Low whistle cds, as well as slow air cds too. One other possibility that is flute again, but a really good source of some nice tunes, is the WFO (Wooden Flute Obsession) Cds. Volume 1 and 2 are available, and really a great value, since they are both double cd albums. They are put together by our Chiffer Kevin Krell, and you can get them here: http://www.worldtrad.org/WFO_CD2.htm
My suggestion, is save youself some money and get the deal Kevin offers for both sets together at a nice savings. You most likely will want the other when you hear the first. With your Low D whistle you can play along with most all, except for an occasional Low Eb. But if you have slow-downer software, it can be easily dealt with.
Another alternative would be to go with a fiddle album, of which there are many Irish fiddlers that you can choose from, and you can play along with many tunes there too, although you may not get quite as many in D as you would the flute.
Maybe some ITM fiddlers could recommend some of the better choices too.
All you need is money, and time to listen, and then time to practice. Have at 'em!
There are quite a few slow air cd’s available that are not slow whistle cd’s. One of my favorite performers for mellow Irish music is Aine Minogue, a harpist and singer. She does have some new-ageish influences, but I’d say she’s more traditional than not. I’d recommend Between the Worlds and Mysts of Time. I recently bought her Celtic Meditation Music cd which has grown on me.
Green Linnett music publishers has a number of compilation cd’s with some nice slow air ones. Look at their ‘Celtophile’ series. (Did they ever resolved their lawsuit with the performers?)
I also like Davy Spillane’s Sea of Dreams cd, which has a lot of slow music on low d whistle. It’s kind of trad sounding, but also kind of new age. His technique on low whistle is definitely worth listening to.
I get the basic melodies from cd’s like these and work them out on the whistle. It’s not any more difficult than learning them from whistle cd’s (and easier than learning them from sheet music).
Tony
Joe McKenna’s CD “Low Whistle” is OK,
and may I point you to Clips and Snips
maintained by Tony Higgins, the slow
airs section has some nice tunes - though
the playing isn’t always the best
- and I speak only for myself.
I am working on my pen-ultimate CD which is a whistle-opera of my latest trek thru Eire:
Slow Airs from Tyre
